Kawanoe Zoki, Japan, and Metso, Finland, have extended their cooperation in tissue making technology to include the marketing and supply of Advantage DCT 40 and 60 technologies to the Chinese market. Under the new license agreement, Kawanoe Zoki will market, manufacture, and install Advantage™ DCT® 40 and 60 machines that will be produced at the company’s workshop in Zhejiang, China. Metso will supply key components including OptiFlo II TIS headboxes, Metso yankee cylinders, and suction pressure rolls, to form part of Kawanoe Zoki’s deliveries.
 

The first joint delivery to China will be four Advantage DCT 60 tissue machines to Shandong Dongshun Group Co.. 

Metso and Kawanoe Zoki have a long history of cooperation in supplying tissue machines based on Metso Advantage DCT technology for the Japanese market.
 

Ever since 1996, several tissue machines based on Metso technology have been successfully installed in Japan. The deliveries include key components from Metso as well as equipment manufactured by Kawanoe Zoki under a technology license from Metso. 

"Some 20 years of partnership with successful projects in Japan have nurtured our current deep cooperative relationship with Metso. By combining Metso’s world-class technology and our strong sales and after-sales service network in China, this new license agreement should bring success to our business in China," says Takahiro Shinohara, Kawanoe Zoki.
 

"Kawanoe Zoki has numerous excellent references in China for smaller size tissue machines, and combining this with Metso’s unique technology and resources will provide a basis for an attractive offering to the Chinese tissue making industry," says Ingmar Andersson, Metso Tissue Mills business unit. 

The first tissue producer to benefit from Metso’s Advantage DCT 60 technology and Kawanoe Zoki’s vast experience is Shandong Dongshun Group Co., which placed an order for four Advantage DCT 60 tissue machines in July of this year. Two of the machines will be installed at the Dongping mill in Taian City, Shandong Province, in the second half of 2014 and the other two at the same mill in the first half of 2015. 

"We have a long-standing relationship with Kawanoe Zoki. Since the first BestFormer Yankee paper machine was contracted in 2005, we have ordered 20 units of Kawanoe tissue machines, which demonstrate our trust and satisfaction with Kawanoe Zoki’s high technological skills and committed customer services. Now their cooperation with Metso will help us to become more competitive with higher production and quality products in the Chinese market, thanks to the world-leading Advantage DCT technology," says Chen Shu Ming, chairman of the board, Shandong Dongshun. 

Shandong Dongshun Group is the largest tissue paper manufacturer in northern China and one of the leading tissue makers in China in terms of both production amount and business scale. Shandong Dongshun has recently expanded its product range to baby diapers and sanitary napkins in addition to toilet and tissue paper.